It costs a lot of money to be a Dallas Cowboys season ticket holder. And on Thursday, that money will get you a fine seat for what will be worse than a glorified scrimmage. Season ticket holders would be just as well served taking a $100 bill and lighting it on fire.

Vikings coach Brad Childress announced yesterday that he is benching every one of his starters, plus his No. 2 quarterback, for Thursday's game in Dallas. Cowboys' fans won't see Adrian Peterson, or Jared Allen, or the Williamses, or any one of the Vikings' projected starters. Normally teams send their starters out for a brief series or two in game four of the exhibition season, then hand it over the backups. Childress is just speeding up the process.

Not many husbands/fathers can claim to be as lucky as the one whose wife suggests a trip to Lambeau Field for a summer getaway. Not only can I claim it, but I have the photographic evidence to prove it.

We spent this past weekend in Green Bay, purposely timing our trip to coincide with a Packers preseason game on the road. It was surmised that we could have an easier time navigating around Lambeau Field and the Packers Hall of Fame if there weren't 70,000 people around at the same time. There was also the chance to check out a Packers training camp practice on Sunday afternoon.

Since I'm pretty much a complete dork at this point in my life, I figured I'd bring the camera with. I come now bearing photos from our trip to Green Bay to hang out with the Packers (sort of). I'll share a few of them after the jump.

After being relegated to third string and special teams duties only, the writing was likely on the wall for Ricky Manning Jr. He simply wasn't in the Bears plans for this season or the future, despite the mammoth five year contract which still contained three years.

He started grumbling this week, and was outright released from the team today. He obviously wasn't on the same page as the coaching staff.

Basically, Manning was being paid like a starting corner, and he was no better than a nickel corner who couldn't cover well one on one. He did garner five picks in 2006, but last year fell apart and wasn't productive in the least. One wouldn't think he's done already at age 27, so odds are he'll have a new job quite soon, possibly a starting gig.

I'll most remember him as the culprit in Devin Hester's called back punt return TD in the '06 playoffs. Thanks for that, Ricky, it's always good to take away the fans' collective joy like that.

No word yet on Ricky's present whereabouts. If you are reading this from your laptop in a Chicago-area Denny's, you may want to get outta there very quickly. Better safe than sorry.

I don't pretend to be able to judge how attractive a man is. It's tough trying to figure out what women want. I do, usually, think I can spot an ugly dude, though. It doesn't matter one bit to his football play -- which is quite ugly at times -- but Kyle Orton just seems like an ugly dude to me. It's probably because of presentation, sure, but that's how he's chosen to present himself ... with an odd-looking neck beard and an unidentifiable 'do.

Apparently, that's how Lindsay Lohan rolls. She and her gal pals want a piece of said neck beard, apparently:

Also spied dancing with an attractive blonde at Crimson Lounge: new Bears quarterback Kyle Orton -- dubbed ''super-hot'' by Lohan, Ronson and Lauper, who all admired the NFL player's dance-floor moves.

I guess if you still find Lohan appealing -- just pop in Mean Girls -- this should give hope to all men that they can attract a woman. I mean, check out the picture ... you can't tell me you leave your house in the morning thinking you look worse than that.

Finally, from a fidelity standpoint, I hope the "attractive blonde" was Orton's wife ... maybe she dyed it?

Arm bash: Brinson on MPS

Yesterday was a busy day at Halas Hall, but not on the field.

Chicago Bears first-round bust pick Chris Williams told reporters that he already had a tweaked back before the NFL draft.

''I had a herniated disc before I got here,'' Williams said. ''We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me, so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems.''

So he withheld information to get drafted higher? The nerve of this guy! Oh wait, Bears GM Jerry Angelo said that he knew about it when he drafted Williams in the first round.

''There is a lot of history of players that had this condition that he had at the combine that have played with it,'' Angelo said. ''We were basing it off of the play time. We were basing it off of no symptoms for a period of three or more years. We were comfortable with that. I did use the term wear and tear. There were concerns. But you know what, you could say that for a lot of players at a lot of positions.''

With one game to go until the season starts, which Steelers fan out there feels comfortable with the offensive line?

There may have been a lot of discussion during the offseason about whether Ben Roethlisberger holds on to the ball too long. The Steelers offensive line cleverly figured out a way to difuse that controversy Saturday night. It's hard to worry about that when Roethlisberger never has more than a second or two before he starts dodging pass rushers.

The Vikings have arguably the best front four in football, with three potential Pro Bowlers among the four starters. The Steelers offensive line has one player (Marvel Smith) who has ever gone to the Pro Bowl, and if yesterday is any indication, no one who will challenge for a Pro Bowl spot this year.

The Steelers' first team offense gave up two sacks. By my count, Roethlisberger was also hurried four times in two quarters of action. That's six pass plays busted by the pass rush in 19 attempts (32 percent). And that barely explains how under the gun Roethlisberger was. Throw in some three step drops and the lack of holes for Willie Parker and it's clear that the Steelers offensive line was in over their heads.

When you're overflowing with anger, bitterness, and sorrow, you need a big target to direct it at, and Shaun Rogers is the literal and figurative target Lions fans crave. He represents everything that's doomed the Lions for however long the Lions have been doomed. He represents the failings of the Matt Millen era. And he now looks like he's going to deliver on his promise for somebody else after all these years. Wonderful.

Well, Lions fans let Rogers know how they felt about him every time his name was called in last night's 26-6 victory over Rogers' Browns. The Free Press' website even has a nifty headline -- Just like old times for Ex-Lions Shaun Rogers ... boos and a loss -- poking fun at the big guy.

Rogers was dominant, collecting five key tackles in one half of action. But it was his old team, the Lions, that looked like the team his current squad is supposed to be. While still facing some struggles in the running game, the Lions excelled on defense and through the air.

Losing Rogers and his immense, if mostly untapped, potential was the best thing for the Lions. The team now appears to have the right path, preseason or not, and it's no small coincidence that it finally appears to have happened in the post-Rogers era. Still, that won't temper the Lions' fans vitriol, and I love them for that.

You may have thought that the clause the Packers threw into their Brave Favre deal would ensure he never became a Viking. The Jets would have to give the Packers three first round picks if the deal Favre to Minnesota, which seems like a pretty big bit of insurance that Favre will never wear purple.

But according to Pro Football Talk, don't be so sure.

The Jets apparently reworked Favre's deal when they acquired him. He doesn't have to make appearances for the team, and he also wouldn't have to give back any of his bonus money if he retires after the season.

There were some Browns fans who claimed that Leigh Bodden had lost a step since he sorta came out of nowhere to become "the best cornerback you never heard of" a few years ago. Turns out they were onto something.

After Cleveland sent him to Detroit in the Shaun Rogers trade, I was convinced that their secondary would take a hit. Whether that happens remains to be seen -- mounting injuries certainly aren't helping -- but if it does, it won't have anything to do with Bodden's departure. You see, he's currently a backup with the Lions. Depressing, I know.

The former Browns cornerback, who was included in the trade for Shaun Rogers on March 1, is listed as a backup on the Lions' depth chart. The starters are Brian Kelly and Travis Fisher, though Bodden has worked with the first team on occasion.

To his credit, he's not bellyaching about his plight, although maybe he's still in shock at the thought of not being good enough to crack the starting lineup in Detroit:

"I'm not complaining," Bodden said in a phone interview. "It's been a good camp. I've been picking up the defensive system. Guys are treating me good."

That's a good point -- he is learning a new system -- but, really, the Lions didn't trade for a starting-caliber cornerback to just play him in nickel packages. The thing is, whatever the state of Bodden's game, the Browns would probably love to still have him.

Maybe some spirit out there in the ether just does not want Drew Stanton to be a starting NFL quarterback. Saddled with bad luck in his rookie year, luck which came in pairs -- a knee injury that drove him to the IR and the unfortunate situation of being stuck with Mike Martz as a coach -- Stanton came into this offseason pretty much as a rookie.

And he looked good, too, so good that it was assumed he'd win the job of backing up Jon Kitna, putting him one sack (of the 70 that will surely come) or one interception (of the 20 that will surely come) away from stepping on to the field. But his progress is taking another hit as he'll be sidelined for a month after spraining his right thumb on a teammate's shoulder.

With recovery and re-acclimation, it's tough to imagine Stanton taking over as primary clipboard holder until early October, meaning it looks like he'll have to wait until 2009 -- unless something drastic happens -- to be The Man. There's a good chance that would've been the case anyway, but Stanton is missing a vital point of the season for a player in his position, leaving us still to wonder what could've been.